High Court pulls up Maharashtra officers

The Bombay High Court has come down heavily on Maharashtra administration officers for failure to decide representations made to them by the members of public, saying this apathy had given rise to a number of litigations resulting in waste of precious time of the courts.

Justices A M Khanvilkar and R Y Ganoo observed this while hearing a petition filed by Rakesh Godambe, a Pune resident, against the District Collector of Pune, for failure to decide his representation on June 28, 2011.

“We are appalled to notice the laxity and indifference of the Collector in not expediting the process of deciding the subject representation even after the service of present writ petition. Admittedly, no decision has been communicated to the petitioner till date,” the judges noted recently.

“Institution or pendency of this petition was certainly not an impediment in taking the decision. Any prudent officer would expedite the process as soon as he is served with the copy of petition making grievance against him about his inaction. The attitude of the officer in not deciding the representation, even after service of this writ petition, is to say the least deplorable,” the judges said.

As a result, the judges directed the Collector to decide the representation made by the petitioner by January 19 and communicate the decision so taken to him by the same time.

The judges also directed the Collector to submit compliance report on that behalf in the registry of this court, failing which, the matter be notified under caption “Direction” on January 22, 2013.